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The Oregon Ducks improved to 10-1 overall and 7-1 against Big Ten Conference opponents on Saturday night as they handed the USC Trojans a 42-27 defeat.
With the win, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning endorsed his team for the College Football Playoff. The Ducks were ranked No. 7 in the latest reveal, moving one spot up from the previous week. Oregon would have been pitted against No. 10 Alabama, according to the latest release.
It would mean that the Big Ten gets three teams in the College Football Playoff.
“I think proof’s in the pudding,” Lanning told reporters, via ESPN. “We can beat you in multiple ways, right? We can outscore you at times, right? We can hold you to the 18-, 16-(point) type of game, win in tough environments, any weather, put the ball down, let’s go play football. That’s the kind of team that we have.”
Lanning also pointed to the difficulty of the team’s schedule, contrasting it with some of the SEC schools. Oregon will take on the Washington Huskies to finish the year.
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Ducks quarterback Dante Moore was 22-of-30 with 257 passing yards, two touchdown passes and an interception in the win. Oregon had a 28-14 lead over USC at halftime.
“At the end of the day, I kind of just kept telling the team it was going to be an emotional game, because it was senior night, but also you can’t let emotions take over because with the emotions come negativity. So it’s been a lot within this game,” Moore said. “But I feel like we pushed out ourselves Monday through Friday to get the result we wanted.”
USC head coach Lincoln Riley lamented the team’s struggles as their College Football Playoff hopes were seemingly dashed.
“We’re disappointed, didn’t play our best. We had some penalties that we haven’t been having that showed up and definitely hurt us,” Riley said. “We were gutsy, made a lot of plays, but in the end we were just a couple of plays short.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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